7 Conversion Optimization Tricks You Should Try Today

You may obsess over bringing more and more traffic to your website, but I think it’s more useful to obsess over increasing your conversion rate, because at the end of the day, that’s probably the only metric you or your boss care about.

Maybe you are doing a great job on the traffic side, and you are bringing 1000 new visitors a day, but if none of these visitors convert, you will be both disappointed and sad.

The great news is that you don’t need to go overboard with analyzing the traffic and setting up very complex tests to see if you can boost your conversion rates (both micro-conversions and macro-conversions.) Sometimes, all you need are small nudges or quick changes to see radically improved results.

In this article, we offer you 7 conversion optimization tests you could try on your own, and get them running even today.

1. Adding a Picture of a Person Increased Signups by 102.5%

Picture of the landing pages via Kissmetrics

37 Signals, the people behind Highrise, Basecamp, SVN Blog and several other ventures, managed to improve their signup rates with 102.5% by simplifying their landing pages and adding a big picture with a smiling person.

3. Asking customers what they think brought Moz 1 million in yearly revenue

The guys from Conversion Rate Experts, they really know how to create an amazing story.

They helped Moz make 1 million dollars in yearly revenue by following the insights collected from their research conducted with paying customers, free-trial customers and members who canceled.

They asked the following questions:

Paying members: what they liked most & how they would describe Moz to a friend.

Free-trial members: what it would take for them to sign up for the service, what they liked the most, and how they spent their time on SEO.

Members who canceled: “Why? And what would bring you back?”

Based on those responses they developed new wireframes, and then they collected usability feedback from Moz’s twitter followers , and then they launched the new version of the landing page, which in the end, translated in a 52% increase in sales, that means 1 million dollars in yearly revenue.

Even though the whole case study is complex, the simple trick is asking your paying, free-trial and members who canceled relevant questions that can help you clarify your offer, improve your educational resources and solve issues within your product that are making your customers give up your product.

Their old website was stuck in the ’90 in terms of design, and they noticed that.

With increasing traffic from mobile devices they thought a responsive website would be the right choice.

They changed their website, added big pictures and easy navigation and that translated in a 377% increase in mobile revenue, and a 42% increase in overall revenue from all devices. That’s what I call a total makeover. :)

Even though the whole redesign process wasn’t a quick solution, the decision is very easy to take. You just have to look in your Analytics software and you let the numbers guide you.

Here’s my personal rule of thumb: If more than 10% of your traffic is coming from mobile devices, than you should have a responsive webdesign, especially if you have a e-commerce website.

BONUS: The $300 million dollar button

First-time shoppers might mind the idea of having to register an account with your website. Some people (like me) hate the idea of having to register to every website on the interwebs.

Sure, facebook login made it very easy for people to register accounts and log in, but sometimes, you just don’t want to share your details with certain websites.

That’s why, I really believe, you should have a “guest checkout” option on your website. Some people might drop the order just because they don’t want to register, so why loose that potential customer?

The 300 million dollar button is the perfect back story for the implementation of a guest checkout process, and it’s my personal favorite, because it’s probably the best example of a simple, but powerful feature.